Vernon cook finds community love for the flavours of Ethiopia
A Vernon woman has been cooking authentic Ethiopian foods and sharing it with friends and family for several years, and this year she expanded the fresh food offerings to the greater community.
Azeb Gemechu has been selling her homemade dishes this year to see if it's something her community is interested in and she quickly got the answer.
“It’s new for people, there aren’t Ethiopian restaurants here, but there has been a lot of interest, more than I expected,” she said. “I can’t keep up with the orders.”
The stay-at-home mom cooks dishes that are eaten every day in her home country with ingredients like fava beans, red and yellow lentils, beets, and green chard, and traditional spices, chilli peppers and jalapenos. During holidays, she invites friends and family for a full Ethiopian dining experience, complete with a “coffee ceremony” where coffee is served with meals.
“We eat a lot of vegetables and most of the dishes are vegan, but I do make some with beef or chicken,” she said. “Since we are young we’re cooking and that’s our every day meal, so we love our food. These are not specifically family recipes, these are what all Ethiopian people cook, everybody is cooking the same way.”
Gemechu sources the more authentic ingredients and spices straight from Ethiopia. Every summer she drives to an Ethiopian store in Vancouver for other ingredients.
This year she started a Facebook page called Hand made Ethiopian and started taking some orders for food for pick up.
“I started the page to see if people are interested in Ethiopian food here and a lot of people find me through word of mouth,” she said. “I don’t do it full time, it’s hard as a mom. I just wanted to see what the feedback was. No one gave me negative comments, everyone is happy with the portions I give and it’s fresh all the time.”
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Gemeche also makes and sells injera, a traditional sour flatbread made from a batter of fermented teff flour. Teff is a grain that was domesticated thousands of years ago in Ethiopia and Eritrea and is the smallest known grain in the world, according to Britannica. Injera is used a plate for sauces, salads and stews as well as a utensil to pick up the various foods.
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Gemechu recently slowed down her cooking for awhile as she is juggling children and a health issue, but since seeing the positive feedback from the community, is planning to open a food truck or small restaurant this coming year so she can keep sharing her cultural foods.
“There are lots of Ethiopian restaurants in Vancouver and Calgary and they do very well, but there’s isn’t much available in this community yet,” she said. “I hope to open a truck or small restaurant by next summer.”
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